Wednesday, 16 May 2012

1. I have been living off this stir fry lately, I love it! Perfect for one person instead of having to buy a big ready made bag!
2. Saturday after getting my hair cut - tuna and cheese pasta, coca cola and Fifty Shades of Grey. Yes.
3. Tidying my nail varnish drawer out and having it all in neat, branded order makes me happy.
4. Saturday night going out - Laurens OOTD

Friday, 11 May 2012

I was kindly invited to the launch of Illamasqua's latest collection, Human Fundamentalism, earlier this year at their Leeds store. I think this collection is my favourite one yet - the imagery is all so striking and wonderful, I thought after seeing the Theatre of the Nameless collection it would be hard to beat but they have definitely managed it in my opinion!

Human Fundamentalism is an explosion of your alter ego. It's becoming who you are and not who you're told to be. Beauty isn't conformity, but the fundamental human desire to express your inner self on the outside.

I would strongly urge you to head over to their website to have a look at the rest of the imagery for this collection, I have included the one above as it stood out to me at the event and I thought it was gorgeous. I actually had this as my desktop background for a good month or so!

The collection originally comprised of six eyeshadows, two lipsticks, two nail varnishes, two palettes, and Skin Base foundation and Precision Ink in brand new shades, but I do believe there has now been more added to this since the launch.

Skin Base is available for a limited time only in the shade 'Au' - the chemical symbol for gold. Mixed in with the usual goodness Skin Base brings are tiny flecks of metallic shimmer, giving a golden glow. I used a teeny tiny bit of this and was totally covered in gold shimmer - if the full on golden glow isn't for you, this can be mixed in with your usual foundation to give a subtle highlight which I think would look fab!

L - R: Pivot (yellow green), Vernau (yellow ochre), Obsidian (just seen at the back! - rich black), Burst (blue green), Sex (pure white) and Cancan (bright lilac). Vernau does not look orange IRl - refer to the picture before this for a more true colour of that one! I was lucky enough to walk away with two of these shadows - Obsidian and Burst - and have had fun creating looks with them - A smoky eye is something I am always trying to create and Obsidian certainly helps me along the way! These eyeshadows retail at £15.50.

The two stand out lipsticks: Apocalips, and Box. I actually love the Apocalips (teal) lipstick a lot more than I would have expected to. This picture is just amazing.

The two palettes: Fundamental, and Neutral.

My favourite part of the entire collection is most definetely the nail varnishs. Nomad, and Stance. The colours are gorgeous and so summery, so bright. A lovely lady at the event painted my nails for me using both colours and also used the Presicion Ink as a nail art tool, which I loved and thought worked brilliantly - I just don't want to pay £17 for an eyeliner I would only use every so often on my nails. I was lucky enough to come away from the event with Stance and have used this a number of times - I'm 90% sure I will be picking up Nomad in the very near future, especially when I look back at these photos!

♥ Planning a night out this Saturday although I have no idea where I am going to go!

♥ Getting ready to see Westlife with Sinead on Monday night!

♥ Looking forward to having Tuesday off work

♥ Ordering Fifty Shades of Grey and it arriving pretty much next day

♥ Buying some more Xen Tan goodies and getting ready for Summer!

♥ Watching more episodes of Army Wives! I am obsessed with this programme!! Absolutely love it - anyone else a fan??

♥ Finally getting into Drakes Take Care album months after I bought it, love this song! Kinda obsessed with the video too in a :O kinda way...then a totally jel way when Drake comes in looking all sexy at the end lol.

Monday, 7 May 2012

I wish it could be Bank Holiday weekends every week. A four day working week, with a day off to just chill and enjoy as you wish? Yes please!

This last weeks photos are very boring, I barely took any which is why these are so rubbish, scraping the bottom of the barrel!

1. Bought a tin full of shortbread from M&S for the Jubilee - I plan to keep this box forever! My mum has one from the Jubilee when she was about twelve (think that would have been the Silver Jubilee) still in the loft full of things from that year/event. So far in mine there is random things that can be bought now in the shops, I'm going to a friends party that day so am thinking of getting the photos developed and keeping them in the tin :)

2. Milo jumped in the wardrobe when I was getting dressed the other day, was totally cute!

3. Bought The Hunger Games books as they were only £5 (for all three) at the Book People at work.

4. Scranning a Dominos on Friday night as I was home alone watching my beloved Jason Donovan on Piers Morgans Life Stories.

5. Picked up the new Lucazade 50 calories drink on Friday and was pleasantly surprised!

I've spent my day leisurely sleeping in, going shopping and then cooking up a delicious feast whilst watching One Day which I bought today and was so disappointed with it! I know it is so rare for a film to ever do a book justice, and to tell the truth I found the book itself overrated but the film was just so... rubbish. Still, at least I only paid £7 for it and didn't waste a load of money at the pictures on it!

Friday, 4 May 2012

So I really didn't want to miss uploading these pics as the whole weekly picture thing is something I want to keep up with, I really enjoy looking at other peoples and hope you won't get too bored looking at the millions of photos that will follow this paragraph! I can't believe three weeks have flown by just like that, where has the time gone!

On Bank Holiday Monday (all the way back now on the 9th April!) I went to Ilkley for the day. It was a wet rainy day but I do really love wandering round Ilkley having a nose in all the charity shops which are always so much better than my local ones. I spotted these random cute ducks just on a grass perch in the car park which was weird, no idea where they had sprung from, and this was a book I found in Oxfam and put back. It was Easter Monday after all so after getting home and dried off I picked up my M & S chocolate bunny and settled down with some DVDs! And finally my brother took this picture of my cat Milo and I just thought it was a brilliant pic, such a close up!

Bit of a baby week! My friends daughter who I have shown on here before because she is the cutest thing I know popped into work looking adorable as per, and I met my cousins baby daughter the following Saturday, in England for the first time as my cousin upped sticks and emigrated to Australia.

Not even going to deny that I find Sir Tom a bit attractive for an OAP, my favourite judge on The Voice, treated myself to a shiny new iPod :), I screenshotted this bear from the DM as I thought it was immensely cute! And another of Milo, perched on the bed - obviously sat nearly falling off instead of sitting where there was loads of room.

Had a spontaneous night out in Leeds on the 21st with my friend Joanne, had a good night although you know, these days I just do not know where to go in Leeds anymore? Any suggestions?!

Me and my brother Alix went to Nandos, followed by Asda for all this loot, and once again (I know, I just can't stop showing pics of Milo, she is too cute) Milo stretched on my bed :)

Slept at my friends and got to see cuteness again, who can now say my name and it is somewhat of a novelty, I have so many vids of her just saying 'Carla. Carla. Carla' over and over #dies and oh! look at that, more feline activity.

Booked St Georges Day off work with my friends Joanne and Vicky, and my boss came along too. So these were the cheapo £1 Primark nails I glued on and thought they were pretty neat actually for what they were, whats a day drinking without taking photos with big fake glasses and drinking cocktails?

Another pic of St Georges Day, a rainy pic of the Town Hall in Leeds, a snap of my pizza from Casa Mia in Leeds and finally I am addicted lately to stir fries with broccoli and pepperoni and noodles #yum

So many pics up there, actually didn't realise how many Milo was in until now haha, I will leave it here as I will be posting week 18 in a couple of days! Don't forget to say HI if you made it this far lol :)

Thursday, 3 May 2012

I can't remember when I first started reading Gala Darling's blog but it's been on my reader a long time. I recently watched a video she linked to (here) and at some point in there she talks about when she started, and still does now, Things I Love Thursday, and how it caught on and so many people do this now, each Thursday, on their blogs. Here's the little reminder she put at the end of this weeks TILT posts:

A reminder: The reason I do these lists every week is to remind me of the positive! They are one of my essential happiness practices: they keep me focussed on what is good in my world, & stop me from dwelling on the flaws or difficult moments. If you’re struggling with happiness right now, you should start writing these lists, too! If you’re not struggling, making a habit of counting your blessings will rocket you to another dimension of bliss! Guaranteed!

So I guess in the words of Gala, I'm struggling with happiness right now so I thought I would start giving this TILT thing a whirl. Who else participates so to speak in this? Please leave me your link in the comments if so! The idea is that anything, no matter how small or large, that has made you happy that day should be noted, even if it is something very very simple, just anything you can think of that has made you smile!

Being the first time I've done this I don't have very many to start with, I'm hoping that if I keep on doing this I will have a bigger post like Gala does! But - everything counts right? So here are the ones that have lifted my spirits today:

♥Finishing my book at dinner time today, I have been reading Adele Parks Tell Me Something and quite enjoyed it

♥The day not dragging - first time in ages? Seems like at the moment every time I look at the clock only a second has ticked by!

♥My new dress arriving from Dorothy Perkins - not sure if I am going to keep it but I can't deny I love receiving post!

♥Eating a simple but nice lunch - tuna and cucumber sandwich in granary bread with some crisps!

♥Waking with enough time to put a full face of make up on and do my hair before leaving the house - sounds simple but oh, so many times it doesn't happen!

♥Getting up to date with my diary - I have been skipping quite a bit lately so before turning the computer on tonight I caught up with it all and feel so glad I have!

♥Knowing I have paid my holiday off! I only booked it last month and it's not until August but it's great knowing I only have to think about my 'spending' money now, and I'm not thinking of that until the month I go :)

♥Notifications from eBay that I've had bids on my items!

♥Trawling through the pages of STA Travel North America brochures makes me so excited and happy, even though I'm not planning on taking the trips, just reading about them excites me!